August (virtual) Programs for All Ages
Press Release · Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Washington, DC

The National Archives presents summer programs on African American leaders Ida B. Wells and Frederick Douglass.

Meet Ida B. Wells (portrayed by Marti Gobel): Young Learners Program
Thursday, August 26, at 11 a.m. EDT
Register in advance; watch the livestream on our YouTube Channel
In this National Archives Comes Alive! program, pioneering Journalist, abolitionist, and suffragist Ida B. Wells will talk and answer questions about her life, activism, and advocacy for a “more perfect union.” Born enslaved in Mississippi in 1862, she dedicated her life to fighting for racial and gender equality. See related video: Rightfully Hers: Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

*Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote and programs presented in conjunction with the exhibit are made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of Unilever, Pivotal Ventures, Carl M. Freeman Foundation in honor of Virginia Allen Freeman, AARP, AT&T, Ford Motor Company Fund, Facebook, Barbara Lee Family Foundation Fund at the Boston Foundation, Google, HISTORY ®, and Jacqueline B. Mars. Additional support for National Outreach and Programs provided by Denise Gwyn Ferguson, Maggie and Robert Boroujerdi, BMO Financial Group, The Hearst Foundations, Maris S. Cuneo Foundation, FedEx, Bernstein Family Foundation, and The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation/Ambassador Fay-Hartog Levin (Ret.).

The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Tuesday, August 31 at noon, EDT
Register in advance; watch the livestream on our YouTube Channel.
In The Failed Promise, historian Robert S. Levine shares the dramatic struggle between the orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Andrew Johnson. Despite early indications that Johnson would pursue aggressive federal policies for black equality, Douglass soon grew disillusioned with Johnson’s policies and increasingly doubted the president was sincere. Levine portrays the conflicts that brought Douglass and the wider Black community to reject Johnson and call for a guilty verdict in his impeachment trial.